Lucid Motors interim Chief Executive Officer Marc Winterhoff publicly questioned the profitability claims of a Chinese electric vehicle maker, saying he does not believe that at least one company that reports being profitable is actually making money.
Earlier this year, Winterhoff had described Chinese EVs as “highly subsidized” despite noting the “good” technology.
In September 2023, the former Senior Vice President of Product and Chief Engineer Eric Bach said that Lucid‘s entering China was “something we are exploring, and we are investing in.”
At the time, Lucid had hired Zhu Jiang as managing director for the Chinese market and was actively recruiting for positions across hardware engineering, supply chain, retail, logistics, digital, and legal departments.
Last year, those plans were quietly shelved.
Jiang left the company in July 2024, and the China expansion never materialized.
Bach himself was fired last month November, and has filed a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against the company on Monday.
A Bold Claim
Winterhoff’s comments represent a striking challenge to the financial disclosures of publicly traded Chinese EV makers, several of which report audited earnings to stock exchanges in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and New York.
“There are two automotive players that are — one, one allegedly, I’m not really believing that — that are profitable right now,” Winterhoff said Wednesday at the Nasdaq Investor Conference. “Everybody else makes no money.”
The executive did not name which company he was referring to.
According to third-quarter 2025 earnings reports, at least three Chinese new energy vehicle companies posted positive net income: the wolrd’s largest new energy vehicle (NEV) maker BYD, Seres (maker of Huawei-partnered AITO vehicles), and Leapmotor.
BYD — the world’s largest EV maker and a publicly traded company on the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges — reported net income of 7.82 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in the third quarter.
Seres, which recently completed a $1.8 billion Hong Kong IPO, posted 2.37 billion yuan ($333 million) in quarterly profit.
Leapmotor, backed by the Stellantis Group and listed in Hong Kong, recorded 150 million yuan ($21 million) in net income.
All three companies file audited financial statements with regulators.
Li Auto — previously a consistent profit generator among Chinese EV startups — reported its first quarterly loss in two years in the third quarter, posting a net loss of 624 million yuan due to weaker than expected sales.
XPeng and Nio, both listed on the New York Stock Exchange, remain unprofitable but have significantly narrowed losses. Both carmakers plan to report their first-ever non-GAAP profitable quarter in the final quarter of 2025.
XPeng reported a net loss of just 380 million yuan (#) in the third quarter — its smallest in five years — while Nio cut its loss by 31% year-over-year and is targeting quarterly breakeven in the fourth quarter.
Lucid’s Own Losses
Lucid itself is far from profitable.
The California-based company posted a net loss of $978.8 million in the third quarter — nearly $1 billion in a single quarter — and has never reported a profitable period since going public in 2021.
Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to Underweight this week, forecasting that Lucid will not reach gross profitability until 2028, with operating losses persisting until 2031.
The firm also flagged dilution risk, estimating Lucid will need to raise approximately $2 billion in equity by the second half of 2026.
Lucid is funded through “well into 2027,” Winterhoff said earlier this Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg.
Expansion to Asia, not to China
Last September, the interim CEO said Chinese brands have improved, while noting that they are not yet industry leaders in innovation despite being highly subsidized.
The California-based EV maker plans to sell in Asian markets excluding China.
“It’s also highly subsidized, a lot of overcapacity,” the interim CEO added later about the Chinese EVs.
“That’s actually why you can get from – even from suppliers very good prices right now, but we’re not there,” Winterhoff stated.
No Plans for China
Related to the Chinese expansion, the interim CEO said again on Wednesday that Lucid now has no intention of entering the market, citing unsustainable pricing.
“We have no plans to go to China. I want to make that very clear,” he said. “The price points, price levels in China are not even sustainable for the local players.”
The comment echoes previous statements from this year where the management had already denied any expansion plans for the Chinese market.
The CEO said Lucid sees itself competing primarily against established Western automakers rather than Chinese rivals, arguing that Chinese brands have yet to gain significant traction in the luxury segment outside their home market.
“Most of the volume that we see right now would be in lower segments than what we want to play,” Winterhoff said. “When I see the current uptake of, let’s say, more luxurious vehicles, Chinese vehicles outside of China — they are not very high sales numbers.”
Winterhoff criticized legacy automakers for pulling back from EV investments, calling it “a big mistake” that “opens an opportunity for us.”
“If you take the foot off the pedal, it will bite you in five years from now,” he said.
